Amazon-owned Ring said Thursday it is canceling its planned integration with police-tech firm Flock Safety, a partnership that had faced mounting criticism from privacy and civil-liberties advocates. Ring said the integration never launched and that no customer videos were shared with Flock. The move came days after Ring’s Super Bowl ad promoted its AI-powered “Search Party” feature for locating lost pets, triggering fresh concerns that neighborhood camera networks could normalize broader surveillance. The Electronic Frontier Foundation had called the feature a “surveillance nightmare.”
Ring and Flock both said the canceled collaboration was part of Ring’s “Community Requests” workflow, which can let users voluntarily share footage tied to police investigations. Ring said the project was dropped after a review found it would take significantly more time and resources than expected.
The decision also lands amid wider pressure on tech firms over work linked to law enforcement and immigration enforcement. Reporting this week noted employee activism at major tech companies over relationships with ICE and CBP, while a protest targeting Amazon’s ties to surveillance and immigration agencies was scheduled in Seattle.
Flock Safety, known for its automated license-plate-reader network used by thousands of local agencies, has faced scrutiny over how its data may be accessed by federal entities. Flock says it does not share data with ICE or DHS sub-agencies without customer control/authorization.
For Ring, the announcement underscores a difficult balancing act: expanding AI-enabled neighborhood safety tools while persuading users that these products won’t become mass-surveillance infrastructure. The company says users retain control over whether to share footage and on what basis.
